Plague Doctor

"Captain Gu!"

"Captain Yu!"

The sky appeared especially blue that day. Even the darkness at the abyss near the Gate of In-between seemed to lighten. At a spot not far from this boundary world, there were a lot of new buildings. They came with defensive and self-destructive systems. This was a base shared by both worlds and could be considered the port of entry between the two worlds. The envoy led by Yu Chi had to come register here with their Mysterium World Password before they could enter the Phecda World. The envoy had 56 members, the main members were Special Mobile Forces elites from Mysterium, the others were country leaders from the Mysterium World. They went into the limo prepared by Phecda and went down the newly-tarred road. They passed the sign that said, "you're now entering Phecda World".

Feng Peiqian and Chen Ziyuan were part of the envoy. During the final battle, they were still in Australia, therefore, they missed it but also thanks to that, managed to survive. This was the first time they encountered Gu Jun after they saw Gu Jun and Yu Chi disappear in the Australian desert. Things had changed so much since then. Gu Jun came to welcome them with people like Wu Siyu and Cai Zixuan. He was very much unlike the drifter that Yu Chi picked up on the street.

Once he saw Gu Jun, Yu Chi ran over excitedly and pulled him into a bear hug. "We've both survived!" Gu Jun was touched as well. Even though they had chatted many times through video calls, they had both been through a lot after their departure from the Locust God altar. It was a precious reunion.

'Who is this guy being so buddy-buddy with Gu Jun?' Uncle Dan thought concernedly. 'I need to be careful of my spot being replaced.' On the other side, Feng Peiqian looked on with complicated emotions. After separating from Gu Jun, Yu Chi greeted everyone politely. They had all anticipation for the future. They were not concerned with politics. They were the fighters, this meeting was team building, it was to build a rapport, to form the foundation for the sharing of the mental pillar technology.

"Captain Gu." Feng Peiqian shook hands with Gu Jun and said with a smile, "You were such a good actor back then."

"But I never fooled you, did I?" Gu Jun said self-deprecatingly.

"What's going on?" Wu Siyu peeked in from the side. She knew about the events but not the details. "Sounds like spy talk."

"At the time, Captain Gu pretended to be a drifter." Feng Peiqian explained. "He had such an earnest smile, if not for his natural presence, I would have bought it. Then again, he's so good-looking, he'd be swept up by rich females if he stayed on the street."

"Good-looking? He?" Wu Siyu openly studied Gu Jun, "I suppose so."

Amidst the laughter, they continued on their journey. The surrounding area of the Gate of In-between, plants like trees were grown and it was filled with life. When the motorcade passed, they decided to make a detour to the life circle before heading to Mo Bei City. From morning to dusk, the envoy had a lot of sight-seeing. Just from environmental destruction, Phecda World suffered greater than Mysterium World because the main battles happened here. After 3 months of reconstruction, the evacuated citizens had been led back to their home. Life returned to Mo Bei City. Parents were out with their children and young students were in groups since it was summer holiday. When Yu Chi's group saw this through the car window, they felt comforted, at least their partners' sacrifice was not pointless. Gu Jun watched along with them. This city had witnessed a lot, its name would be remembered always.

In the early evening, they arrived at a large hotel in the city. A ballroom had been set up by the Recreational Department. The dinner was buffet style and many foods were served. After the dinner started, the members from both worlds bustled around the venue, mingling with each other. Inside one of the private booths, a table was filled with various kinds of chicken thighs. Lucky was busy stuffing himself, his paws waved noisily. It had grown several sizes bigger. It could barely walk anymore but since he had just witnessed the end of the world, this would be what one'd call food therapy.

"This is…" Yu Chi's eyes widened as he stared at the creature, "a Zoog." Only a few Mysterium members were invited, Yu Chi and Feng Peiqian were one of the few. Phecda did share news about the Zoog, and the Dreamlands with Mysterium. This was one of the chips for Phecda too.

"Yea, that's me." Lucky patted its round belly. He levelled a condescending gaze at the newcomers. The Mysterium members were stunned.

"The Zoog tribes are very powerful." Gu Jun told them. "We humans still owe them an Extremely Luxurious Gift."

Speaking of the Extremely Luxurious Gift, humanity had to pay up soon. Since Lucky had witnessed the almost end of the human world, he reported it back to his kin. The tribe leader demanded that humanity acted on the promise immediately. They were afraid that humanity might disappear before they could get their rewards. Humanity needed all kinds of help, and the Zoogs who loved chicken thighs more than their lives were an important ally. With the Zoog's help, the exploration mission back to the Dreamlands would be a lot more successful.

The Mysterium World's study of Pnakotus went nowhere. They had tried many methods but it was to no avail. The underground was too hard to detect. From the earth crust to the earth centre, it was about 6370 km. Even though they knew the library was underground, Mysterium did not have the technology to locate or even reach it. Therefore, in terms of future expansion, Phecda had more direct aid in the Dreamlands. So if the Mysterium World wished to be a part of that expansion, then they had to participate in the Extremely Luxurious Gift presented to the Zoog tribes as well.

After visiting Lucky, they moved to the booth next door and started the real dinner. After some eating, they started to discuss the mental pillar technology. Most Phecda members had already built the first pillar but the Mysterium members had only seen the foundation. When Yu Chi heard that Gu Jun and Wu Siyu could even manage spiritual conversation, he was shocked and confused. This was because Mysterium had been exploring the same thing for decades, the number of experiments they had done was innumerable. However, there was no presentable result. Like how it was for Gu Jun and Wu Siyu previously, the best of them could only transfer visual images. Everyone present at the dinner table had participated in the exercise but they were clueless about it.

"Captain Gu, if we have that kind of power…" Yu Chi pulled on his beard. "It'll change a lot."

Wu Siyu and Gu Jun shared a look. They decided to put on a show to stun these people. The dinner paused. Wu Siyu and Gu Jun stood up from their seats and walked to the opposite corners of the booth. They turned away from each other. Yu Chi came up with a string of random numbers, letters and symbols. He showed it to Feng Peiqian before walking to hand the note over to Gu Jun. This prevented the possibility of cheating. Then it was showtime.

Gu Jun focused on Dirty-minded Yu's pillar. Then he sent out the message, "6K23@X+6*32djl2lkx=Q1497"

Feng Peiqian observed this very carefully. It required time to memorize the message. They had no particular meaning. Soon Wu Siyu wrote down something on a piece of paper. Then both Gu Jun and Wu Siyu handed their notes to Yu Chi. With everyone watching, Yu Chi set down both notes on the table. Everyone's eyes widened. The message on the two notes were similar down to the order and capitalization.

"This is impressive…" Yu Chi mumbled. The faces of the Mysterium members were filled with surprise, excitement and eagerness. The Special Mobile Forces especially understood the value of this technique. It would prove instrumental to battlefield communication.

For Wu Siyu though, there was a bigger value. She wanted to apply to join a trivia show with Gu Jun. When one of them was on the show, the other would stay backstage to research all the quiz answers. They'd win the jackpot easily.

"Captain Gu, this is wonderful!" Yu Chi turned back with his eyes blazing with jealousy. He wished that he'd be the one who was bound to Gu Jun. "After we've built each other's mental pillar, things will be a lot simpler with this technique."

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Yu Chi was ready to make Gu Jun his first pillar. Gu Jun was the special one, he had the City of Dusk's power within him. Would having Gu Jun as the first pillar benefit him? He didn't know but he'd try.

"Captain Yu, not every bond will have this effect." Gu Jun hated to rain on his parade. Yu Chi paced anxiously around. "There has to be a way. We simply do not understand it yet… Why, why…"

At the same time, everyone saw how drawn Feng Peiqian's expression was.

Cai Zixuan sighed under his breath. I cast my gaze toward the moon, yet the moon shines on the gutter…